Typical Costa Rican Tamales for Christmas

Ingredients:

2 ½ kg of banana leaves
1 kg of corn flour
½ kg pork post Tamales Típicos de Costa Rica para Navidad
½ kg of green beans, cooked
4 cups mashed potatoes
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup lard
1 cup rice, cooked to taste with achiote
6 chicken broth envelopes
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 sweet peppers, cut into strips
1 cilantro roll
1 chicken breast
1 celery stalk
1 thyme sprig
1 hot pepper
1 carrot, cooked and sliced
1 can petit pois
1 wick roll
Salt and ground cumin to taste

Preparing:

Cook pork with garlic, thyme, celery, hot peppers and salt.
Remove meat from broth and crumbled.
Reserve the broth and strain.

Cook chicken in a little oil with achiote, hot peppers, cilantro and broth.

Separately, mix well in a pot corn flour with the mashed potatoes, oil, lard, chicken broth, salt, a little chicken and meat broth and any other condiment of your choice.

Trim the leaves and wash them well.

Place a big tablespoon of dough on two banana leaves.
Add a spoonful of rice, a piece of meat, a piece of chicken, 2 carrots slices, 1 strip of pepper, 2 green beans, petit pois, a sprig of cilantro and any other ingredients you want.

Wrap each tamale well, leaving no or too tight or too loose.
Join 2 tamales and wrap them well.
Cook in boiling water for 45 minutes.

* Reserve a bit of pork and chicken broth to the end, if the mass that gives very dry.
* The dough should be well mixed and wet, if it becomes too dry the tamal can be hard.

Easter Shrimp with Coconut

Ingredients:

6 Jumbo shrimp
1 cup flour
1 cup shredded coconut
2 eggs
Vegetable oil

Preparing:

Pass shrimp by the flour, then the egg and finally by the grated coconut.
Fry the shrimp in hot oil until brown.
Remove the excess oil and serve.

Valentine’s Fish with Asparagus and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

6 fish fillet
400 g mushrooms
1 cup cooked asparagus, in pieces
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup oyster sauce
3 Cambray onions
2 tbsp almond
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 tsp corn starch
Vegetable oil

Preparing:

Fry in oil the onion, ginger, almonds and mushrooms.
Add the chicken broth, oyster sauce and cornstarch.
Cook while moving to thicken.
Add asparagus, remove from heat and allow to cool at room temperature.

Wrap well each fish fillet in foil along with a bit of the sauce.
Steamed for 15 minutes and serve.